Yeh, seems like the people who gave you a quest to go kill Uber Powerful mage number 234 seem to be willing to try to kill you, a person who could probably kill you in one shot. That is quite unrealistic, albeit funny.

Heh, that was funny. I mean, I don't get the point of it (Unless it's that Skyrim NPCs can be ridiculously tough and will punch the shit out of dragons if need be, AKA the Dragonslayer horse), but that was just funny anyhow.

Odd i had the same situation. I was talking to a guard who said they have retired and want to settle down. Suddenly a Dragon and he draws a battleaxe from his ass and charges the thing.

I love the dragon random encounters, make things so much intresting.. however they fuck things up when the mission is a giant battle anyway and then a dragon comes to say hello and doubles the shitstorm.

Dragons are weaksauce in the game >.< Yeah its great that they can spawn randomly just about EVERYWHERE, but man are they weak. Seriously Im more wary of Bears and Giants more than i am of Dragons!

Still waiting for the mod that scales the Dragons to a more appropriate level of epicness.

p.s. I once fought 2, thats right TWO dragons in the town of Dawnstar, and the only casualties was a Guard who got killed more from friendly fire, and a stray female miner who was eaten by the dragon XD

less to say Shadowmere, my huscarl, and Spectral Assassin made the fight ez pz.

OldRat:Heh, that was funny. I mean, I don't get the point of it (Unless it's that Skyrim NPCs can be ridiculously tough and will punch the shit out of dragons if need be, AKA the Dragonslayer horse), but that was just funny anyhow.

I haven't played the game either, but I suppose every NPC starts fighting dragons when they show up. That would be odd if a person who is afraid of mudcraps starts fighting dragons.

If it is anything like Fallout or the previous Elder Scroll games, the NPCs that walk around town, give you quests, and often remark on how they're too weak to do those things themselves just have a flag in their AI that says what they are hostile too. If a dragon shows up, or the player steals a breadknife and is spotted, the entire town population starts fighting with the same AI routines and animations as the biggest badass soldiers you fight with.

It's not an uncommon problem. In the new Deus Ex, you can use the takedown moves on anyone, and some of the animations involve Adam blocking high level martial arts moves from the target as part of the takedown. So you end up with wrinkly old ladies doing a roundhouse kick. Smaller groups of bandits in Mount and Blade run away from you, but if caught will try to demand gold from you in exchange for your life. And they will charge you happily on the battlemap (though later games do make them run if they are losing the battle. But they start with a spirited attack.)

Untill a dev team has so much money to blow that they create separate AI routines and animations for all kinds of NPCs, we'll be stuck with either this or NPCs that can only cower in a corner while a dragon is om-nom-noming their kids.

OldRat:Heh, that was funny. I mean, I don't get the point of it (Unless it's that Skyrim NPCs can be ridiculously tough and will punch the shit out of dragons if need be, AKA the Dragonslayer horse), but that was just funny anyhow.

Well you see NPCs will literally hire you to do tasks like kill a couple wolves or mudcrabs because they are not strong enough. Then when a dragon attacks they will go bare fist and kick its ass. I actually saw a dragon land in the middle of a shopping district and just the shop keepers kicked its ass. The women who looks like she is in her eighties left her stall to punch a dragon.

Skyrim has a lot of inconsistances like this one here and the comic was poking fun at them.

The game is pretty good, but (as many have said before me) the dragons could use some mayor tweaking.

Their health is good, but they don't do any damage at all(to anyone except the player that is) and they suck at flying.

Often I'll get a dragon that flies head-first into the ground, only to bounce back up to continue flying. What? Are they drunk or something?

It would also be awesome if they had nests in caves and on mountains where you can sneak up on them whilst they're sleeping. I miss that feature a lot. Dragons have to sleep too you know? Give a stealthy non-combat character a chance at doing a 15x sneak attack on those eil lizards. Please?

I also think the settlements are too small. Whiterun is supposed to be an ancient city, yet it has only like 12 houses and 30 people living in it(what have they been doing the past thousands of years?). No wonder the Empire lost the war with the Thalmor/High elves during the 200 years since Oblivion; One of it's most important provinces has only a few hundred inhabitants. I call bullcrap on that and am waiting for some kind of huge-skyrim-cities overhaul mod or something.

It's still a very fun game though. Very much so indeed.

You can also kill kids now. Yay (mod)PHA+aHR0cDovL3d3dy5za3lyaW1uZXh1cy5jb20vZG93bmxvYWRzL2ZpbGUucGhwP2lkPTc3NDwvcD4=

bificommander:If it is anything like Fallout or the previous Elder Scroll games, the NPCs that walk around town, give you quests, and often remark on how they're too weak to do those things themselves just have a flag in their AI that says what they are hostile too. If a dragon shows up, or the player steals a breadknife and is spotted, the entire town population starts fighting with the same AI routines and animations as the biggest badass soldiers you fight with.

It's not an uncommon problem. In the new Deus Ex, you can use the takedown moves on anyone, and some of the animations involve Adam blocking high level martial arts moves from the target as part of the takedown. So you end up with wrinkly old ladies doing a roundhouse kick. Smaller groups of bandits in Mount and Blade run away from you, but if caught will try to demand gold from you in exchange for your life. And they will charge you happily on the battlemap (though later games do make them run if they are losing the battle. But they start with a spirited attack.)

Untill a dev team has so much money to blow that they create separate AI routines and animations for all kinds of NPCs, we'll be stuck with either this or NPCs that can only cower in a corner while a dragon is om-nom-noming their kids.

Or you can let the modders do it, but AI scripting is hard. The only good mod I remember doing this for F3 and ES4 was Martigen. And his mod was GLORIOUS. Hopefully he does it again.

I've had this happen more than once. Damn dumb NPC's you have NO armor, no healing pots, and are using piss-weak weapons. JUST RUN AND HIDE! I've lost a trainer/follower and a blacksmith that way, those courageous dumbasses.

This is why noone comes with me outside the holds - I dont want them hulking out and running straight into a pack of bandits. Remember the guy who wanted to come with you to the magic tree? He slid down a hill and I never found him again.

Also, Ive had terrible luck with dragons - whenever I spot one, it pulls trollface and disappears over the horizon. The few that have stayed around long enough have been easier then some of the bandits though...

If one of them has a problem, the entire city will fight to the death to resolve it,

Y'know... I terrified myself earlier.

I was walking through Riverwood and I was a bit pissed off. I ended up punching a chicken that was roaming around. The second my blow landed, I heard an uproar from behind me. It turns out that chicken was their mayor in disguise or something because I got chased out of town by every single person and their Mum.

Ended up having to turn myself in at Whiterun to be able to complete quests.

Wow, is it weird that I didn't notice the connection between housecarl and huscarl until you pointed it out? That makes perfect freaking sense.I do also agree on your point about the dragons. The fact that they appear throughout the game is, I believe, the reason behind their lack of difficulty. Also contributing to that factor is the fact that they'll often land on their own and stand perfectly still so that you can stab them in the flank a good few times. I mean, seriously, when you can fly while breathing fire at that tiny little critter on the ground who's desperately trying to hit you with a Fus-Ro-Dah, WHY LAND? Skyrim dragons are not as bright as the game makes them out to be.

You have to take your hat off to the citizens of Skyrim, and their sky-forged steel nutsacks. I've seen many a townsfolk fight armed bandit hoards and creatures from the depth of nightmares with nothing more than their bare fists and their massive brass balls.

Then again you can rob them blind as long as you place buckets on their heads so maybe they're more rock stupid than rock hard.

If one of them has a problem, the entire city will fight to the death to resolve it,

Y'know... I terrified myself earlier.

I was walking through Riverwood and I was a bit pissed off. I ended up punching a chicken that was roaming around. The second my blow landed, I heard an uproar from behind me. It turns out that chicken was their mayor in disguise or something because I got chased out of town by every single person and their Mum.

Ended up having to turn myself in at Whiterun to be able to complete quests.

Which goes to show how good a survival strategy that is for the communities.You mess with one of them, and you mess with all of them, and they all kick your ass.So you end up not messing with them at all out of self preservation.